The second Sunday of each month means savings for you if you like the Erie Art Museum.
Admission to the museum at 411 State St. is free today from 1 to 5 p.m. and the fun includes tours and games.
To learn more, call (814) 459-5477 or visit www.erieart…

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Living in Erie, Pa., we sometimes forget to go exploring in our own town. I’m trying to remember, because we have a fantastic free adventure always nearby.I took Daisy and my camera to Lawrence Park, Pa. Sunday, January 29, while the sun was shining. I…

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It’s Fashion Friday, and If you are unfamiliar with Jimmy Fallon’s “12 Days of Christmas Sweaters” on Saturday Night Live, here’s an SNL update — 20-somethings have been holding Ugly Sweater parties for years. So what is an ugly sweater, you ask? There is nothing ugly about them — they boast holiday fare. I have [...]

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Sassy Peacock at 843 Pittsburgh Ave., in Erie, is one of those consignment stores with flair. Apparently, the editors at Woman’s Day Magazine agreed because they interviewed Sassy Peacock owner Sabrina Fischer for an article in the January issue on what to do with the clutter in your home. Two words — sell it! The [...]

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“Rugrats” was one of the many Nickelodeon shows I miss. According to Wikipedia, the series aired from 1991 to 2004. It was a cartoon all about talking babies, and some of the episodes made me laugh out loud right along with my kids. It included Tommy, Chuckie, twins Phil and Lil and Spike, Tommy’s dog. Tommy later had a baby brother Dil, [...]

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I watched just about every minute of the Super Bowl and what a game! The halftime show, featuring Madonna, was a big show, as Ed Sullivan would say. And it did not go off without controversy. Too bad, too. It was a good one. If you haven’t heard by now, M.I.A., a British singer, apparently [...]

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Check out Her Times in today’s Sunday Times-News. The theme is sparkle, and the great team of cheerleaders from CheerVibe showed us what fun it is to catch the spirit of competitive cheerleading. Read their story here. There’s much more sparkling this month. Jeans, food, drinks, makeup, hair, sparkling snow on cross country skis, CrossFit and [...]

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If you love stately old homes, take a gander at my article about 218 Frontier Drive. It’s a beauty inside and out, and the article is in today’s House to Home. The tile, woodwork and awesome windows are just incredible on all three floors. This home includes its own ballroom, fireplaces and more. It’s $695,000, and [...]

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The Erie Art Museum is hosting a meet and greet this weekend with Gado, a political cartoonist from Africa. The free event will feature a brief talk by Gado on his artistic process, a Q&A and a casual reception with traditional African food, according to an e-mail from the art museum. The event begins Sunday [...]

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This photograph was taken Sunday, January 29 at 1 p.m. along the shores of Lake Erie in Lawrence Park, Pa.This mild winter has not allowed the bay or lake to freeze, nor ice dunes to form. The waves are still crashing and causing more erosion on the be…

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I blogged about Kaitlyn, 25, a week ago, but I’m doing it again because this young woman will change the world in her own way. Kaitlyn went on the Kathie Lee and Hoda segment of the Today show yesterday and confidently told the world about the misconceptions of epilepsy, something she has battled since she was [...]

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Teen lovebirds. On the plus side, it’s nice to see kids in loving relationships. In our family, with six kids, we’ve seen a lot of that. But those love stories don’t always play out to anything lasting, and the breakups are hard on everyone. Parents too. We’ve absolutely loved some of the boyfriends and girlfriends [...]

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Dr. Spock’s Baby and Child Care (that’s Benjamin Spock, not Star Trek’s Mr. Spock) and T. Berry Brazelton, M.D. got me through child-rearing. And now, I recommend their advice to all my young parent friends. Books by both docs were lifesavers, and the advice is still great stuff even though Spock is long gone. The [...]

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Today is Cheap in Erie’s anniversary and to celebrate I’m giving away Erie Times-News/GoErie.com mugs. Send an e-mail with “mug” in the subject line to me at dana.massing@timesnews.com by  Wednesday at noon. I’ll randomly pick winners from the entries I receive. And as long as you’re e-mailing, tell me what you’ve thought of the blog [...]

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If you fear hearing those words from your child’s teacher, rest easy. I’ve been there, and I’m writing this because it’s the time of year when parents start thinking about where their little ones will be attending school once they graduate from preschool. My advice: Don’t push them. There is no magic date or age [...]

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You don’t have to be a tennis fan to appreciate the talents of Novak Djokovic and Rafael Nadal. At the 2012 Australian Open, Serbian Djokovic was the winner with scores of 5-7, 6-4, 6-2, 6-7(5), 7-5. It was a nail-biter of a record-setting match that took 5 hours and 53 minutes. If you don’t understand those scores, [...]

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I was sitting around today wondering what I should work on and then I looked out the window and saw what appeared to me a blizzard! We haven’t had that must snow this year compared to last and it seems like it always comes in at night. So I quick…

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Today’s The Bird Feeder Wars article in Parade Magazine made me laugh out loud. I can identify with author Connie Schultz. We have a squirrel in our yard that’s as big as a dog, and our neighbor has tried to thwart its attempts to clean out her bird feeder. It is funny to watch. We [...]

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Kaitlyn Slomski, at left, and her mom, Jill Thompson Slomski, at right, are headed to the Today Show for a Thursday morning segment on Everyone has a Story. Kaitlyn has epilepsy, and she e-mailed her story to the Today Show. Her mom and brother, Jon, were also interviewed. Her dad is Jerry Slomski of Erie. A graduate [...]

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By now, you’ve probably heard that J.C. Penney is getting rid of sales. It’s permanently marking down all of its merchandise by at least 40 percent. That means the sales, coupons and all the other hooey will disappear. I’m all for it, and as a fan of their Worthington, Liz Claiborne and other collections, what’s not [...]

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If you have kids looking at colleges, then you know the word FAFSA. It stands for Free Application for Federal Student Aid. If you want more information, go to www.fafsa.ed.gov. There are a lot of FAFSA sites, but don’t start filling in your information anywhere but http://www.fafsaonline.com/fafsa-form/. Other sites charge a fee and waste your time. And [...]

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Congratulations to:
Diane Wisinski, Mary Catherine Menosky and Meagan Bielanin, winners of tickets to Saturday’s Bayhawks game! Thanks for entering. For more free stuff from the Erie Times-News and Her Times, please check back on this blog and at…

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Ever wonder what happened to the ballyhooed coyote of Erie Cemetery? Nothing, apparently. She was sighted Tuesday looking fit and fast.

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Marc Brown is in town, and I’m proud to say I lived right across the street from his former elementary school. My kids attended the same middle school that he did at Westlake,  and there were plenty of inspirations in those schools that appeared in his books. Lakewood Elementary, Brown’s grade school, was one of [...]

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Everyone knows we gals are shoppers, and now some research proves we do some good things with our bargain skills. LeaseTrader says more women ordered third-party vehicle inspections of vehicles before buying compared with men — something experts suggest everyone do before you make an emotional decision about a vehicle purchase. Women also ask more [...]

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Serena Williams, the last of 21 US women and men in the first major tennis tournament of the year, was dismantled by Russian Ekaterina Makarova, 6-2, 6-3 last  night and I watched every minute. It was painful to watch Williams, who has come back from innumerable injuries, including a blood clot, foot surgeries and countless [...]

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Would you like that cleaner shaken or stirred? Well, who knew that vodka could clean chrome plumbing, freshen clothes and more? I learned all about it on CBS’ morning show yesterday. Now, I know rubbing alcohol does the same thing, but with a somewhat nasty medicinal odor. No olives or lemon twist required for cleaning. And [...]

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This mirror and countless other items had lives as barrels and other useful items before they became artsy mirrors, tables and chairs. These things are available in Erie — read about it in House to Home here. You can find them in regional art galleries and some home fashion boutiques. There’s plenty to see out there. [...]

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In yesterday’s post, I mentioned my mom’s art exhibit, Lake Effect Lace, at the Erie Art Museum being featured in the Erie Times-News Showcase. I provided a link to the online story, but what I didn’t say – and what wasn’t included online -&n…

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I read recently that snakeskin shoes were out, and naturally I just bought a few pair of fake snakeskin last year. But snakes were in the news yesterday in regard to beauty treatments. If you missed the wacky report, I caught it on GMA, and you can see it right here. The newscast discussed a [...]

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